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Daily Record
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Boden cuts £61 off 'simply stunning' summer midi dress ahead of UK heatwave
Get ready for warm summer weather with the massive Boden sale. Parts of the UK are set to be hit by another mini heatwave next week. With temperatures reportedly soaring to 27C, many of us will be planning days outside. That possibly means updating the wardrobe for summer. Fortunately, fashion retailer Boden is running a massive sale across new season must-haves in time for sunny weather and balmy weekends. One item that has caught our eye is the Bria Puff Sleeve Midi Dress that has been dropped from £136 to £74.80, saving shoppers over £61 off the RRP. Hailed as "simply stunning", we think it's perfect for summer weddings, BBQ's and picnics in the park. Crafted from a flowy, breathable material, this midi dress features a fit-and-flare design and a tie-belt at the waist that offers a "flattering" effect on the body. Meanwhile, its "super-swishable skirt" adds a touch movement and drama to the overall look. The all-over multi-coloured means it is a statement wardrobe item, while a few other sought-after features include handy side pockets, alongside full lining to ensure it doesn't look too sheer or see-through. Boden's Bria Puff Sleeve Midi Dress £136 £74.80 Boden Buy here Product Description Designed in petite and regular lengthways, the Bria Midi Dress is available to buy in sizes four through to 20, although Boden has advised it is "one to watch", meaning it's pretty popular with shoppers. Prefer longer sleeves? Then we have spotted this equally vibrant Wh ite Tropical Print Puff Sleeve Midi Dress over at New Look for a touch cheaper at £36.99. For something a touch more muted, yet no less stylish, there is this Puff Sleeve Seersucker Midi Summer Dress for £49 from Next that is available in three other colours. For the fashion fans keen to take advantage of Boden's discount on the Bria Puff Sleeve Midi Dress, it's worth knowing that shoppers have been hailing it in reviews as "simply stunning" and "extremely comfortable." One five-star review read: "This dress is simply stunning. I am five foot 2 and the regular length falls just right for me. It's extremely comfortable, the print is bright and it fits perfectly. This may be the best dress I have ever had. Fashion deal of the week In need of new trainers, but don't want to pay Skechers prices. Then these STQ Women's Slip-On Trainers are said to be "much better" than the famed brand. Even better, they are currently priced from just £30.99 on Amazon. With their slip-on style design and ultra-breathable mesh material, these trainers are said to be a fuss-free option for anyone who spends long periods of time on their feet, alongside anyone who suffers from foot pain issues such as plantar fasciitis. The flexible knitted material features an elastic cuff, making them easy to pop on and take off, while the wide fit fabric has been designed to make it feel like you are wearing nothing on your feet. Crafted with over 1,000 ventilation holes, they ensure that feet don't get to sweaty during wear, while the memory foam insole provides good arch support, making it feel "like walking on air". Available to buy in sizes three through to eight, shoppers can select from eight colours including black, grey and pink. However, it's worth noting that the £30.99 price-tag is available on the black colourway. With the STQ Trainers posing the cheapest price-tag, shoppers might be happy to hear that they have earned a 4.4 rating based on over 5,000 Amazon reviews that suggest they are "light as a feather" and "really comfortable". One delighted shopper said: "Super lightweight, comfortable and a fab colour pink. Much better all round than the Skechers I bought at four times the price! Your feet will love these." Purchase the STQ Women's Slip On Trainers from £30.99 on Amazon here. Thank you Boden for not making it too low cut and for proper sleeves! I can't fault it- the fabric is gorgeous and I am going to wear it for my graduation at UCL in May." A second eager fan wrote: "This dress is beautiful! It's well made and super colorful. It's a perfect dress for either a casual or dressy event in the summer. I love it!" Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. While someone else added: "I can't tell you just how beautiful this dress actually is the fabric is lovely soft cotton and the cut is superb. When it arrived and I tried it on it felt so lovely to wear and so flattering and it has pockets. Can't wait to wear this on my next cruise." Not everyone found the dress suited their style, as one shopper said: "The colours and print on this dress are very vibrant and beautiful, the quality feels good, and it could be worn with accessories in a wide range of colours. "However, although the dress fitted me, it did not suit me at all, but made my hips look big, and gave me a very 'matronly' look, which was not good. Sadly, I have returned the dress." Although, another shopper said in return: "Classy! Love the fit and the fabric! True to size." here.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk Says He's Leaving the Department of Government Efficiency
Elon Musk has served as a top adviser to President Donald Trump since the president's inauguration on Monday, Jan. 20 The tech billionaire headed up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and worked to make major cuts to areas of the government the administration deems unnecessary Musk then announced on Wednesday, May 28, that he had decided to leave DOGEElon Musk announced he is departing from his government role as a top adviser to President Donald Trump. The 53-year-old businessman posted to X on Wednesday, May 28, sharing his decision to leave the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 'As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,' he wrote. 'The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.' Musk losing his special government employee status is expected because his role had a set end date. However, a White House official confirmed to the Associated Press that Musk was leaving rather than just stepping into a less official role. Since Trump's second term began, Musk has served as a White House adviser heading DOGE and worked to make major cuts to areas of the government the administration deems unnecessary. However, his departure comes one day after he criticized Trump's budget legislation agenda, explaining that he is 'disappointed' in Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill." The bill was passed in the House of Representatives on May 22. It is funding its tax cuts and military spending in part by cutting some federal health and energy programs. However, it is also poised to add an estimated $3.8 trillion to the national deficit, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Musk said he feels that the new legislation could soon undercut DOGE's work. 'I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' he told CBS Sunday Morning in an interview that will air in full on June 1. Musk also told The Washington Post on Tuesday, May 27, that he felt his DOGE project was taking a significant portion of the blame for unrelated problems in the Trump administration. 'DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,' he said. 'So, like, something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.' 'The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized,' Musk added. 'I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least.' Prior to Musk's departure, multiple sources claimed in early April at Politico and ABC News that the president had informed his inner circle that Musk would be shifting into a 'supporting role' at the White House and returning to his business ventures. Politico also reported on Tuesday, April 2, that some White House insiders 'increasingly view [Musk] as a political liability.' However, the next day, Vice President J.D. Vance indicated in a Fox & Friends interview that those reports may have been overblown. "DOGE has got a lot of work to do, and yeah, that work is going to continue after Elon leaves,' Vance said. 'But fundamentally, Elon is going to remain a friend and an adviser of both me and the president.' Read the original article on People
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Ontario's 1.5M new homes target looks increasingly out of reach
The new Ontario budget foresees a slow pace for housing construction over the next three years, making it increasingly unlikely that Premier Doug Ford's government will achieve its target of 1.5 million new homes by 2031. The budget forecasts 71,800 housing starts in 2025, followed by 74,800 next year and 82,500 in 2027. There have been 260,000 actual housing starts in the three years since the target was set. So if you add in the projections for 2025 and 2026, the province would only be about one-quarter of the way toward its goal at the end of next year, the halfway point of the target timeline. To put it another way: construction in the final five years would need to average about 218,000 homes annually, more than double the pace of the first five years. "The government should acknowledge that it's clearly not going to make that target," said Eric Lombardi, president of More Neighbours Toronto, a volunteer-run housing advocacy organization. Lombardi describes the budget's measures on housing as ineffective and says that suggests the Ford government "has given up on its own housing goals and has no interest in really achieving its prior promises on this file." The biggest new measure related to housing in the 2025 budget involves adding $400 million to existing programs that fund municipal infrastructure for housing, such as water mains. There's also a commitment of $50 million over five years to boost the province's capacity in modular housing construction. The budget includes no changes to the centrepiece of the government's housing plan, what's called the Building Faster Fund. Announced in 2023, it promised to provide $1.2 billion over a three-year period to municipalities that achieve annual targets for new home construction starts. The province distributed only $280 million from the fund in 2024, its first year, after more than half of Ontario's municipalities failed to hit the housing start targets in 2023. The government hasn't updated its housing start tracker since October 2024. As of that point, nine months through the year, only 11 of 50 municipalities had reached their annual benchmark. CBC News asked a spokesperson for Housing Minister Rob Flack to explain why the tracker does not show the final figures for 2024, and when the numbers will be made public, but did not receive a response. On budget day, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said the government remains committed to hitting the 1.5 million new homes target. "We're not going to relent on trying to achieve that goal," Bethlenfalvy said at a news conference. Housing slump predates Trump tariffs Bethlenfalvy said tariffs deserve a lot of the blame for the lowered projections for housing starts in 2025 and 2026, which are down more than 20 per cent from the forecasts in last year's budget. "Let's be clear, tariffs have impacted housing starts right around the world," he said. Ontario's housing construction slump, however, predates U.S. President Donald Trump's return to the White House and his imposition of tariffs. Last year's budget forecast 87,900 housing starts across the province in 2024. The actual number for 2024 (reported in this year's budget) was 74,600. The Ford government's own figures toward its target of 1.5 million new homes are slightly higher than the housing start numbers reported in the budget, because the government also counts a new long-term care bed as a new home. Bethlenfalvy says he believes federal money for housing will flow more easily and with fewer conditions under Prime Minister Mark Carney than it did before. "I'm optimistic that the federal government will step up to work in partnership with us and I can guarantee you that will lead to more housing being built," he said. The Ontario Real Estate Association praised the government for what it called "pro-housing measures" in the budget. "Now is the time to keep their foot on the gas and continue to support policies to bring affordability back for Ontarians and their families," the association's president, Cathy Polan, said in a statement. Among the opposition on budget day, Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner went after the government the hardest over housing. "This budget utterly fails to even attempt to address the housing affordability crisis," Schreiner told a news conference.
The Irish Sun
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Love Island's Kaz Crossley sizzles in tiny bikini as she gets soaked in the rain on holiday in Thailand
KAZ Crossley oozed beach babe glam as she stripped to a thong bikini in Thailand. The Love Island alum, 30, opted for the racy patterned two-piece which tied high on her hip as she strolled around in the pouring rain. 6 Kaz Crossley stripped to a purple thong bikini in a sizzling new video Credit: kazcrossley/Instagram 6 The All Stars alum posed in the cheeky two piece as she took an outdoor shower Credit: kazcrossley/Instagram 6 Kaz has sparked suggestions she has split with All Stars partner Montel McKenzie Credit: TikTok/@kazcrossley Kaz flashed a smile despite the wet conditions, flashing her tan as she walked barefoot in her swimwear around a patio area. The All Stars alum swept her platinum blonde locks back and went make-up free for a video posted to Instagram Stories. She added the teasing caption: "Why would you visit Thailand during rainy season?" The next scenes saw her close the doors to her garden compound before taking an outdoor shower. read more love island Kaz added: "God forbid a girl likes to get wet." She then hit the pool for a lie down on a yellow float. To finish off the clip, the reality TV beauty took a twirl in her two-piece. The ITV2 star has previously Most read in Love Island SOLO TRIP Kaz's solo trip came after she Love Island's Kaz Crossley drops huge hint she's split from Montel McKenzie in new post The pair dropped hints that they have called time on their romance just weeks after leaving the villa as an item. In a recent post, she gave fans an update on her life lately, but failed to mention love interest Montel. Despite them hitting it off in the villa, they have remained quiet about their relationship on social media, fuelling speculation that they've gone their separate ways. In a further hint, Kaz captioned it: "When you start loving yourself, life starts loving you too." Love Island winners - where they are now EVERY year Love Island opens its doors to more sexy Islanders who are hoping for a holiday romance that could turn into more. Here we take you through all of the 2025 - The second series of All Stars saw STATUS: Still together. 2024 - The summer Love Island saw and Josh Oyinsan were STATUS: Broken up. 2024 - The first ever All stars spin off show was STATUS: Still together. 2023 - STATUS: Broken up. 2023 - The first series of 2023 saw STATUS: Still together. 2022 - STATUS: Broken up. 2021 - STATUS: Still together. 2020 - The first ever winter Love Island saw STATUS: Broken up. 2019 - Series 5 saw STATUS: Broken up. 2018 - It wasn't surprising fan favourites STATUS: Broken up. 2017 - STATUS: Broken up. 2016 - Nathan Massey and Cara De La Hoyde were together from the start of the series, and since they won the show they've had two kids and are married. STATUS: Still together. 2015 - Despite poor STATUS: Broken up. The during Love Island All Stars' Vibe Club but then vowed to give their romance a go on the outside. All Stars winner then appeared to suggest their partnership had failed. Speaking on the White Fox After Hours podcast, Gabby was asked by the host: 'Who is most likely to be chronically single?' Gabby replied: 'Kaz. I was with her yesterday and she was like 'no man is good enough' and it's true. "I love Kaz, I haven't watched it back but from what I've seen, I think she might have got a bit of a rough edit. "She's amazing, she's one of a kind and it's going to take a special strong man to be able to handle her, so until she finds someone that's on her level... then they're not worth it.' 6 Kaz, 30, flashed a pout as she walked in the rain Credit: kazcrossley/Instagram 6 She met Montel on All Stars Credit: Rex 6 Kaz recently failed to mention Montel in her social media round up Credit: TikTok/@kazcrossley
The Guardian
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘It's the misogyny slop ecosystem!' How Candace Owens and the American right declared war on Blake Lively
Rarely has a film been so un-presciently named as It Ends With Us. This domestic abuse drama was released in August 2024 and was a huge success, earning over $350m worldwide. But that was only the beginning. What has followed is an offscreen conflagration that is not only threatening to consume the careers of the film's lead actors, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, but continues to set social media and the entertainment industry ablaze. We've still got a long way to go before it really ends – a trial is set for March 2026. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. It's easy to see why this case attracted so much attention initially – everyone loves a good celebrity dust-up – but having begun as just another Hollywood feud destined to be adapted into a prestige miniseries a decade hence, the Lively/Baldoni saga is morphing into something larger and possibly more ominous. For one thing, the case drags the dark arts of celebrity public relations into the spotlight like never before. For another, it has attracted an inordinate amount of attention from rightwing political figures in the US. Combine these two trends and we are seeing a disturbing blurring of lines – between genuine and manufactured 'public opinion', and between celebrity and political discourse. The ins and outs of the saga itself are almost too labyrinthine to follow. In a nutshell, Lively alleges that Baldoni sexually harassed her during the making of It Ends With Us (in the story, Lively falls in love with an abusive man, played by Baldoni). He alleges that Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, tried to take control of the film, which Baldoni also directed and co-produced. In a flurry of suits and countersuits, each side has alleged misconduct, and accused the other of orchestrating a 'smear campaign' against them. Many Hollywood figures and organisations have come out in support of Lively, but America's right wing has taken an inordinate interest in the case, and is overwhelmingly siding with Baldoni. Fox News, for example, has run nearly 80 stories on the case on its website this year. Joe Rogan mentioned it on his podcast with comedian Brendan Schaub, accusing Lively and Reynolds of 'trying to take over the movie'. And then there's Candace Owens, who has discussed the case at least 25 times this year on her YouTube show and podcast, eagerly responding to each new development in granular detail. Owens' allegiance is unambiguous: 'She has proven herself not to be a kind person,' she said of Lively in January. 'And that's largely due to the fact that she is a modern feminist.' By focusing on such ostensibly apolitical celebrity content, Owens has boosted her following considerably, appealing to viewers (predominantly female) who may have little interest in rightwing politics, or knowledge of her more extreme beliefs, which range from downplaying the Holocaust, to appearing with Kanye West in a 'White Lives Matter' T-shirt, alleging that Brigitte Macron, wife of French president, Emmanuel, is a man, and calling Volodymyr Zelenskyy a 'welfare queen'. Now we are seeing articles headlined How Candace Owens Is Uniting Conservatives and Liberals with her 'It Ends With Us' Coverage – although that appeared in conservative-leaning women's magazine Evie, whose coverage has also been largely anti-Lively. Another rightwing commentator with a newfound interest in the case is Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News presenter. In February, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Kelly made Lively/Baldoni the central topic of her on-stage presentation. She described Lively as 'an avatar for leftist overreach', and attempted to tie the case to a broader rightwing grievance narrative: 'You've been gaslit to high heaven every time you've picked up a newspaper in the United States, every time you've turned on CNN … you have been the victim of overbearing and controlling leftists who think they are the final arbiters of what's best for you and your life.' In the same way the 'manosphere' has used male-oriented sports and fitness content as a gateway into far-right politics, some are seeing this new celebrity focus as a way to draw women down the same path – and calling it 'the womanosphere'. Taking to heart Andrew Breitbart's famous dictum that 'politics is downstream from culture', the right's goal has long been to 'take back the culture', as self-tagged #ConservativeInfluencer Abby Shapiro (sister of rightwing commentator Ben) proclaimed in a 2020 YouTube video titled 'Conservative women, it's our time.' 'I used to think that that sounded really silly,' says feminist YouTuber Ophie Dokie of Shapiro's message, 'and then fast forward to 2025 and that's who people are listening to about things like Hollywood pop-culture gossip, which I did assume, until very recently, would be a more liberal conversation. It truly is not any more. It does feel very dominated by Conservatives, and intentionally so.' It's not just rightwing figures weighing in against Lively; everyone seems to be at it. Go on X or YouTube or TikTok and you'll be served up an endless stream of videos discussing and analysing the case in forensic detail, overwhelmingly from an anti-Lively point of view. Content creators have been in a feeding frenzy over the case: there are celebrity gossip 'tea channels', body language experts, AI-powered pseudo-journalism – all supported by an army of 'mommy sleuths', laptop detectives whose examination of every nuance of the case often verges on conspiracy theory. Is Lively out for revenge because she was secretly in love with Baldoni? Is Lively's new comms manager, Nick Shapiro, a former CIA agent, using 'black box tricks' to stifle negative stories? Did she burp and fart all the time on the set of Gossip Girl? Content scrutinising Baldoni's behaviour or background in similar detail is much harder to find. All this activity has whipped up a maelstrom of clickbait: content creators, celebrity media and prominent public figures feeding off each other's output, recycling and regurgitating the same low-quality, primarily anti-woman information – all boosted by engagement-targeting social media algorithms. 'It's a perfect storm,' says Dokie. She calls it the 'misogyny slop ecosystem'. As an example, she points to a clip followers of the Lively/Baldoni case will doubtless have seen several times: an interview Lively did while promoting a Woody Allen movie in 2016, in which she was judged to have been rude to Norwegian journalist Kjersti Flaa. Flaa says, 'Congrats on your little bump,' to Lively, who was pregnant at the time; 'Congrats on your little bump,' Lively replies to Flaa (who is not pregnant). 'The amount of people who have recirculated that clip and who have spoken about that specific interaction, and then they'll make 20, 30 minutes [of content] about it, and their audience will eat it up because they also thought she was really rude in that clip,' says Dokie. 'And it's like, if everybody wasn't recycling that clip, you wouldn't have known about it, because that happened 10 years ago.' Flaa, incidentally, is now selling 'Justice for Justin' T-shirts on her Etsy site. 'Probably misogyny slop has always existed,' Dokie says, citing figures such as Anita Hill or Monica Lewinsky who were vilified in the pre-digital media age. 'But I feel like around the time of the Depp v Heard trial, there was this real increase in social clout, almost, in making fun of women who are alleging abuse.' All of this feels a long way from Lively's original complaint, which was that Baldoni was abusive towards her. When filming of It Ends With Us resumed after the actors' strikes, in January 2024, Lively only agreed to continue if Baldoni signed a 17–point agreement 'for the physical and emotional safety' of her and her team, according to a legal complaint she filed with the California Civil Rights Department. The conditions include: 'An intimacy coordinator must be present at all times when [Lively] is on set'; 'No discussions of personal experiences with sex or nudity, including as it relates to conduct with spouses or others'; 'No spontaneous improvising of any scenes involving physical touching, simulated sex, or nudity.' The filing also complained that Baldoni criticised Lively's weight and body, that he entered her dressing room without permission while she was breastfeeding, and, bizarrely, that he claimed he could speak to her dead father. Baldoni responded with a $250m lawsuit against the New York Times, which broke the story, denying team Lively's claims and alleging that they had 'cherrypicked and altered communications stripped of necessary context'. The same day, Lively filed a federal lawsuit against team Baldoni, repeating the allegations made in her initial filing. In response to that, in January this year, Baldoni filed a $400m lawsuit against Lively, her publicist and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of attempting to take control of the film, and detailing a long list of rebuttals and counter-allegations. It's become less a matter of 'he said, she said' than 'he sued, she sued'. We've been here before, and not that long ago. In 2022, the entertainment world was gripped by another 'trial of the century': Johnny Depp v Amber Heard. The similarities are striking: a famous woman alleging abuse; a famous man counter-claiming victim status himself, and online opinion apparently coming down heavily in favour of the man. Hashtags such as #JusticeforJohnnyDepp and #AmberHeardIsAnAbuser dominated social media ahead of the US trial. (Depp initially sued the Sun newspaper in the UK for calling him a 'wife beater' and lost; he then sued Heard in the US for defamation, and won.) Data experts later found that much of Depp's social media support was 'inorganic': spread by accounts that were suspiciously coordinated, prolific, recently activated and/or single-minded in their focus on Depp/Heard and nothing else. An in-depth investigation by Tortoise media suggested most of the anti-Heard activity was almost certainly manufactured, and pointed fingers at hired troll farms in the Middle East. A similar picture is emerging with Lively/Baldoni, says Zhouhan Chen, founder of social media data analysts Information Tracer. Chen helped investigate the Depp/Heard online activity and he has been looking at Lively/Baldoni. In his analysis of the top 500 tweets on the subject, he found that support is overwhelmingly pro-Baldoni – sharing hashtags like #BlakeLivelyIsALiar and #JusticeForJustinBaldoni – 'by a ratio of 1:150 to 1:300, depending on which metric you use'. Judging by the age of the accounts and the number of times they have posted, 'I would estimate more than 80% of pro-Justin Baldoni posts are inorganic,' Chen says. As well as the abuse allegations, Lively's legal complaint alleged 'a multi-tiered plan that Mr Baldoni and his team described as 'social manipulation' designed to 'destroy' Ms Lively's reputation', and that they 'created, planted, amplified, and boosted content designed to eviscerate Ms Lively's credibility'. The filing included text exchanges between Baldoni's publicist, Jennifer Abel, and crisis communications expert, Melissa Nathan. In one exchange, Abel writes to Nathan that Baldoni 'wants to feel like [Lively] can be buried'; Nathan replies, 'You know we can bury anyone.' In another exchange, commenting on a shift in online sentiment against Lively and for Baldoni, Nathan writes to Abel: 'And socials are really really ramping up. In his favour, she must be furious. It's actually sad because it just shows you have people really want to hate on women.' Baldoni's lawyers argue that the text exchanges 'lack critical context', and that Lively is using the same PR tactics she is accusing Baldoni's side of implementing. Hollywood has always used PR and behind-the-scenes media influence to construct or dismantle a celebrity's reputation, says Prof Sarah Banet-Weiser of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, who researches gender and media. 'But what happens in the current moment of unregulated, unmoderated digital media that circulates so fast and that has so many nodes? You can make it look like it's grassroots, when, in fact, it's very calculated and very intentional.' From their supporters' perspectives, the victimhood is the other way round, and it is men like Depp and Baldoni who are being persecuted. One Hollywood crisis-management veteran described Lively/Baldoni to me as a 'come to Jesus moment': 'The #MeToo movement was brought on by liberal progressives who started a movement of 'let's believe all women, all the time, no matter what'. And slowly but surely, that shroud has been breaking.' (In fact, #MeToo's initial slogan was just 'believe women', not 'believe all women'.) 'This is a rightwing multimedia campaign that is about painting women as inherently lying and manipulative,' says Banet-Weiser. 'That's why people say, 'MeToo has gone too far', that's what Andrew Tate says, that's what radicalised young men say: that women are trying to manipulate them, they're liars, they make false accusations, their whole goal is to ruin men. That is the broader cultural context in which this case, and the media attention to this case, starts to make sense.' While privileged white women like Lively and Heard might not be the ideal torch-bearers for all victims of abuse, in this context they are painted as avatars for 'modern feminism' and 'leftist overreach', all the better to contrast them with a more traditionalist, conservative ideal of femininity. 'That idea of some women being seen as manipulative and lying, and other women being seen as virtuous and responding to a higher calling of motherhood and family and husband, seems to characterise some of the gender cultural dynamics at play right now,' Banet-Weiser observes. 'This demarcation of ideal femininity, at least in the US, is rooted in a very particular reactionary, authoritarian politics.' Nobody really knows who is telling the truth in the Lively/Baldoni saga. But if the case ever does come to trial, as well as sending the internet into meltdown, it could shed light on far more than simply who said and did what to whom. Whatever the outcome, the battle being fought right now, outside the courtroom, on social and mainstream media, could be more significant: in terms of women coming forward as victims of abuse and sexual violence, especially, but also in terms of how much we trust what's presented as 'popular opinion', and by extension, how easily it can be manipulated, whether in pop culture or in politics – assuming they're still two different things.
